Government plans to make next India Mobile Congress a global event

There has been huge interest in scaling up this event... particularly for neighbouring countries and Africa. Enlarge the ecosystem. We still have many ecosystem player who could take part.PTI | October 02, 2017, 11:22 IST

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to organise next India Mobile Congress with global theme to expand its horizon to attract global audience.

"We are working on next dates for the event which will be in sync with global calendar of events. We want to have it along with a global event. Deliberations will take place on it in this month. Probably, an event around innovation is one of the thing that we are looking at for global audience," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told.

"There has been huge interest in scaling up this event... particularly for neighbouring countries and Africa. Enlarge the ecosystem. We still have many ecosystem player who could take part. Next year we expect their participation," Sundararajan said.

"This event is actually a PPP (Public Private Partnership). Industry is on the forefront and government role is to support. That is how other global events are organised. From that point of view we want to establish IMC as a permanent global brand," Sundararajan said.

Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India said over 35,000 people attended the event.

"This has been a good beginning. There was participation from around 350 exhibitors, 500 start-ups, 13 countries, including Canada, the US, UK, Sweden, France, Finland, Israel, Japan, Bhutan participated in the event," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) pulled up Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for warning subscribers of certain plans that their SIM cards would be deactivated if they do not recharge their pre-paid accounts though these subscribers had the minimum required balance.